The present invention generally relates to a copying machine and, more particularly, to a copying machine having a capability of reproducing images at different magnifications one at a time within a predetermined range.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 57-68868 discloses a copying machine having a capability of reproducing images at different magnifications one at a time by detecting the size of an original and that of a copying paper and selecting an optimum magnification ratio from a plurality of available magnification ratios.
Since the prior art machine is a system wherein an appropriate copying ratio is selected from a combination of the size of the original and that of the copying paper, data to be selected have to be stored in the form of a table. This means that, when the number of the sizes of copying papers useable in the machine and the number of the available magnification ratios increase, the capacity of a storage device must be correspondingly increased for storing the table. In addition, there has been found a problem residing in that, when the number of the available magnification ratios is small, the magnification at which the image on an A-4 sized original is reproduced on a B-5 sized copying paper is, for example, treated as applicable to the magnification at which the image on a B-4 sized original is reproduced on an A-4 sized copying paper.